Walmart promo caps 13th season of US imports of South African summer citrus
Walmart, a top US importer of South African citrus, invited shoppers at 32 stores to enjoy a “Taste of South Africa” with samples of oranges from the world’s second-ranked citrus exporter earlier this month.
Sunhanra Conradie, CEO of the Western Cape Citrus Producers Forum (WCCPF) a consortium of about 300 growers, applauded the discount retailer for its support of the WCCPF export program: “Walmart shoppers enjoy the full array of South African Summer Citrus, beginning in June with clementines, continuing with navels in the mid-summer months, and ending the season through October with midknights.”
The WCCPF Summer Citrus export program has been a big success story: The South African fruit bridges the gap from June through October when US domestic citrus is not available. South African citrus exports to the US began in 1999 and have grown annually to more than 41,000 tons. For Walmart, the alliance with WCCPF is part of the discount retailer’s “Live Better” initiative aimed at providing healthy, affordable food to consumers.
According to Datamyne’s South African trade database, fresh oranges currently rank 27th by value among its exports to the US, fairly well up a list that is (as expected) dominated by such commodities as platinum, palladium, rhodium and titanium. The US is its fourth-largest market for oranges, with the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and the UAE ranked first, second and third.
Our US import bill of lading data reveals more detail about the South African shippers (the top 5, below, account for 40.5% of trade by value) and US consignees (including Datamyne Profiles covering key company background information). To find out more about using our data to track trade with or source from South Africa, ask us.
